What were the principal causes of the British Revolution and was it really a Revolution?

Answer 1

If you are refering to the English civil war as the revolution, yes it was a complete revolution which ended with the overthrowing of the monarchy and its replacement with a Republic as the form of government. the major cause was that the monarch (Charles 1st) considered himself to be above the law of the land and who ruled by divine right. The beheading of such a tyrant, I use the term loosely, fundamentally changed the way that the people of the U.K. were governed to this day. Although it's interesting to note that the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell died along with him; the English public had decided that they needed a king after all. Answer If you refer to the civil war it was because Charles I behaved too much like an absolute monarch. This brought him into conflict with Parliament. Their loss of power led to war and the kings beheading. Cromwell then proceeded to rule more or less as a king. In my opinion, the Glorious Revolution of 1666 was far more important an event. These happened because James II was again behaving as an absolute monarch. On top of this, he was also a promoter of the Catholic faith...the burning issue of the age. This was intolerable to Parliament and the people in general. Wishing to avoid more bloodshed and destruction, the offered the crown to William and Mary in return for vastly reduced powers. It was from this point on that Parliament was in the ascendancy and the beginnings of constitutional monarchy that we have today.